A beginning painter can learn about tools, techniques, color mixing, drawing, composition, etc., from books and workshops. But, really, if she would just start painting, she would eventually “stumble over,” “back into” or just?Eureka!?learn most of what she needs to know. The most important thing is an individual’s uniqueness of vision. Maybe you can learn something by emulating others, but I feel you can learn more by just sitting down with all the colors and just mixing, drawing and playing with them.

The goal is to see how you react personally to the paint and to the different colors—to see what your inner relationship is to the medium, and not rely on someone else’s point of view to determine whether something is good or not. First, one needs to learn not to be afraid of the white paper. A friend who was learning once said, “What if I get the painting all messy?” My response was that you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Letting the paint and the water do the work for you is the best thing about painting in watermedia!

The story behind the painting above: I worked on this painting for a long while, and just wasn’t satisfied. Finally, I cut out a big white paper triangle and moved it around the painting, trying to figure out how to balance the composition. My answer came when I moved it into the lower left section that’s now painted white. Then I knew I had a winner in Lake Shapes (acrylic on Aquarius paper, 27 x 30).